Ratio Layer: 14
by Tyler Davasel
Summary: Lain attempts to restart the real world and enter it and meets Mask.


serial experiments lain  
restart  
  
ratio- layer: 14  
  
  
(Lain) If I restart, you can still join me, uncluttered.  
(Lain) If I do it, if I restart, I can redo, rewrite the real world.  
  
(Title) RATIO Layer:14  
  
(Voice) So, you're going to restart the real world, are you?  
(Lain) Yes.  
(Voice) You know, restarting the real world might also redo the problems you had before with Deus and  
(Voice) everything. Do you really want to go back to that?  
(Lain) You mean, Deus can come back?  
(Voice) Yes, of course, anything altering the past can bring back everything that was either destroyed or  
(Voice) didnt exist, but of course, those things that never existed may very well have a possibility of existing  
(Voice) in the real world if you alter the past wrong.  
(Lain) That is why I am making sure I do not mess this up.  
(Lain) Who are you anyway?  
(Voice) I am called....The Mask.  
(Lain) Are you...a...god?  
(Mask) No. Unlike Deus, I am not omnipresent, nor do I have any worshippers. God's need worshippers,  
(Mask) don't they?  
(Lain) So, tell me, Mask, where do you come from?  
(Mask) I am from here, Lain. The non-existant plane. I exist as you do in a non-existant world. Weird, isn't  
(Mask) it? That we both can exist in a place where things can't exist?  
(Lain) .....  
(Mask) But do you really think you can restart the real world? Is it really possible for something that   
(Mask) doesn't exist to affect the real, existant world?   
(Lain) No. But I am determinded to find out.  
(Mask) After all, isn't certain types of media non-existant? They still affect the world in large groups of  
(Mask) people. Just look at fanatics and such. Don't they make some things seems to be real in their  
(Mask) own little societies? Killing people in the name of their own personal god that was created by their  
(Mask) fanbases and doesn't even exist in the real world. But hey, maybe they could exist in the wired. So,  
(Mask) non-existant things can affect the real world.  
(Lain) Alright, just what are you getting at?  
(Mask) Lain. Dear Lain. I am asking you to take me back with you to the real world.  
(Lain) What do you plan to do?  
(Mask) .....  
(Lain) What do you plan to do.....in the real world?  
(Mask) .... I plan to use Protocol 7 to transfer myself into the real world to become......an existant being.  
(Lain) .....  
(Mask) No need to be hesitant, Lain. It's just a simple request.  
(Lain) Fine.  
(Mask) But we can be friends right?  
(Lain) Friends? You are nothing but a little less than an aquaintance. Just watch out for PK's.  
(Mask) And why is that?  
(Lain) Because, since you won't begin as a real being in the real world, you'll exist in the wired only for a  
(Lain) while, and since you'll exist only in the wired, you'll have no real world self onto which you can   
(Lain) ground yourself to. Real people can't die in the wired because they still have a real body, but for you,  
(Lain) if you die in the wired, you die for real.  
(Mask) There's something about you, Lain. Your esteem seems to escape your every movement. Me, an  
(Mask) aquaintance of the Lain.  
(Lain) How do you know about me anyway? I mean, this isn't the wired or the real world.  
(Mask) You are still omnipresent, remember?.....I just know.  
(Lain) But...God might be an omnipresent being in the real world, but not everyone acknowledges his   
(Lain) existance. How do you know me?  
(Mask) .....I just know. I know you, Lain.  
(Lain) .....  
(Mask) So, Lain, why are you trying to restart the real world?  
(Lain) I'm.... not sure....why. I just...have....this feeling, this ....urge.  
(Mask) You miss...existance. Is that it? Am I right?  
(Lain) You... do not understand. You were never human.  
(Mask) Neither were you, as I understand.  
(Lain) .....  
(Lain) You need memory capacity that may be too much to do for a being who has never existed.  
(Mask) True, but how often do you meet a non-existant being such as myself?  
(Lain) Why the hell do you ask these things? Why are they important? You are not making much sense!   
(Lain) Stop confusing me! A non-existant being doesn't matter in a real world.   
(Mask) .....We'll see.....  
  
(Mask) What will it look like? I mean, when you transfer yourself into the real world, Lain, what will it look  
Mask) like?  
(Lain) It will be a smooth transition into my real self.  
(Mask) But Lain, I thought you never had a real self.  
(Lain) Yes, that is true, but I will once I enter the real world. Every entity in the real world has a real self  
(Lain) because, of course, they exist.  
(Mask) Oh, I see, so only by existing can one achieve a self.  
(Lain) Haha, a "self"? Not hardly a word standing by itself, is it?  
(Mask) I don't know, you tell me. You're the real one. Haha. But seriously, I just thought of  
(Mask) something...you may achieve a "self", a true being status in the real world, but you won't have a  
(Mask) body.  
(Lain) Yes, I know, but I can still affect the real world. Or maybe yet, I may still get a body because of the  
(Lain) W.S.C.  
(Mask) The W.S.C.? What is that?  
(Lain) The World System Cache... it's a theory that was given by Masami Eiri shortly before his death. It  
(Lain) details the reason images of events go by during a black hole encounter.  
(Lain) Events and maybe even people are stored randomly in some sort of "lint tray" so to speak, hehe. But  
(Lain) these are temporary, so that is why I must do this now, while my information still remains in the cache.  
(Mask) Hmmm.... impressive. You seem to know a lot for a young girl, but still you are very very powerful as  
(Mask) well.  
(Lain) Hehe, yes, of course. While being omnipresent in the wired, I aquired all information available on the  
(Lain) wired. There is nothing I don't know that was on the wired at the time I removed myself from it.  
(Mask) Hmm... I see...  
(Lain) You'll see........everything will turn out right!  
  
(Words) to Be continued...  
  
  
copyright (C) John Angus, 2000 


End file.
